Last Saturday, when asked how the US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s updated kleptocratic suits to forfeit US$1.7 billion of 1MDB-linked assets in the United States, UK and Switzerland, would affect Barisan Nasional in the next general election, the Defence Minister, Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein replied that “the people would decide”.

I cannot agree more with Hishammuddin, now that all avenues under the institutional system of checks-and-balance in a parliamentary democracy to prevent abuses of power and uphold the principles of good governance and public integrity, are closed with the total breakdown of such checks-and-balances.

The Cabinet meeting yesterday was the last straw. Imagine at this stage and time when Malaysians are being shamed and humiliated as Malaysia is regarded worldwide as a global kleptocracy, the Cabinet can still embark on a frolic into the past and set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the Bank Negara forex losses scandal a quarter of a century ago but has neither the time nor interest to set up a RCI into the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history – the 1MDB scandal!

Parliament is another lost cause unless the 14th General Election can usher in a new government with a new Parliament, where what happened at the end of 2015 would not recur – my six-month suspension from Parliament, not because I had stolen, robbed, murdered or guilty of corruption, but because I had wanted the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to answer two simple questions about the 1MDB global financial scandal – Where the RM2.6 billion and more in his personal banking accounts came from and where the money had gone to. Read the rest of this entry »

The reaction of everyone in Malaysia and the world to the news that the Najib government is establishing a Royal Commission of Inquiry on the 1980s/1990s Bank Negara foreign exchange scandal is: “Why no RCI on 1MDB scandal? Not even a RCI on FGV scandal? Is there going to be RCI into Scorpene scandal?”

Last Saturday, I said that no loyal and patriotic Malaysian can read the updated 251-page US Department of Justice (DOJ) kleptocratic suit to forfeit US$1.7 billion MDB-linked assets arising from US$4.5 billion 1MDB money-laundering without shame, mortification, consternation and horror and only those who are prepared to commit treason will be unaffected, unmoved and untouched by the US DOJ action.

I called on the entire Cabinet yesterday to take a principled stand at its first meeting after the DOJ’s latest kleptocratic action to cleanse and purge Malaysia of the infamy and ignominy of being regarded world-wide as a “global kleptocracy” or to collectively if the 36 Ministers are unable to defend Malaysia’s good name and reputation in the world.

The various statements by Ministers, like Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan and the Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Seri Salleh Syed Keruak have not dispelled any queries about the latest DOJ action, but only reinforced shame, mortification, consternation and horror at the monstrosity of the 1MDB scandal.

The Malaysian Cabinet would have gained world recognition and admiration, as well as salvaged Malaysia’s good name in the world and for posterity, if the Ministers had collectively resigned to pave the way for a national cartharsis to restore the country’s reputation and international standing as a moral and upright country where public integrity and good governance are not meaningless lip-service phrases but living principles and values in the government and country.

Instead, the Cabinet chose the path of moral cowardice – attracting world attention not for their courage and conviction, but for their unbelievable incapacity to differentiate right and wrong and to feel shame by burying their heads in the sand, ignoring the colossal elephant in the Cabinet room and embarking on a caper into the past. Read the rest of this entry »

Tan Sri Isa Samad resigning as FELDA Group Ventures Holding Bhd (FGV ) Chairman but immediately becoming SPAD Chairman is only continuing the fiasco of GLC musical chairs and the farce of the GLC Transformation Programme.

It is another reason and example of the plummeting public confidence and credibility of the Najib premiership.

The appointment of Isa as Chairman of SPAD is not only the most unpopular appointment of a GLC Chairman, opposed by all sectors of society, embracing the civil service, the civil society and UMNO and BN rank-and-file, but had even been criticised by the first and former SPAD Chairman, Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar.

The least Isa could do to end the charade of his appointment as SPAD Chairman is for him to decline the appointment as SPAD Chairman, pending inquiry into his stewardship of FELDA and FGV, which resulted in the loss of tens of billions of ringgit for the 100,000 Felda settlers. Read the rest of this entry »